Morning Consult polling editor Cameron Easley said on Monday that President Trump’s tweets have made it difficult for the Republican Party to stay on message.
“I think it’s really interesting to look back at how the president used Twitter during the campaign, very similar to how he uses it now. There’s been virtually no change at all,” Easley told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
“He used to be able to monopolize the news cycle and earn media time to his benefit. As the leader of the country, it seems have really had more of an adverse effect,” he continued.
“Republicans in the lead-up to the 2018 midterms really wanted to talk about the good news, talk about the economy, try to sell the tax bill,” he said. “It’s very difficult for the Republican Party to stay on message when every day the president is waking up and saying whatever he wants, waging an airing of grievances. That makes it very difficult to talk about anything that you want to [talk about].”
Trump used Twitter, as well as campaign rallies, during the 2018 midterms campaign to fire up the GOP base over the issue of immigration, specifically the so-called migrant caravan from Central America.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) reportedly even reached out to Trump to ask him to focus on the growing economy instead of the caravan.
— Julia Manchester
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